Stories for April 25th 2017

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) updated growth projections for economic activity in the region in 2017 and forecasts a 1.1% average expansion for this year, the United Nations body stated on Monday in a press release. This projection is slightly below the 1.3% that was estimated in December 2016.

United States former president Barack Obama has returned to active politics with a speech on Monday at the University of Chicago. Obama didn’t offer any criticism of his successor, Donald Trump, instead, he offered a list of four things he said are wrong with US politics today.

European stock market rally sparked by the French presidential election spread to Wall Street on Monday. All three main US share markets jumped more than 1%, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index closing at a record high. Europe's main markets jumped at least 2% and the euro hit a five-month high as fears over the election eased.

Buenos Aires said on Tuesday it was prepared to help financially Santa Cruz province, but demanded a serious program to put in order the regional government´s accounts, which has seen its basic services of education, healthcare and justice paralyzed because of months in arrears to staff.

Three people were killed in Venezuela on Monday in renewed violence, raising the death toll in three weeks of massive demonstrations against populist President Nicolas Maduro to 24, officials said. Several others were seriously injured and between life and death, said public defender Tarek William Saab.

Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has announced that she is stepping aside as leader of her National Front (FN) party. The move comes just a day after she reached the second round of the French election, where she will face centrist Emmanuel Macron. Ms Le Pen told French TV she needed to be above partisan considerations.

Brazilian police near the border with Paraguay have exchanged gunfire with members of a gang who carried out what Paraguayan officials are calling the robbery of the century. So far three gang members were killed and two injured in the clash, police say. The number of robbers involved and display of weapons has led authorities to believe it is a one of Brazil largest criminal gangs.

US submarine has arrived in South Korea, amid worries of another North Korean missile or nuclear test. The missile-armed USS Michigan is set to join an incoming group of warships led by aircraft carrier Carl Vinson.

A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.9 struck off the west coast of Chile on Monday, rocking the capital Santiago and briefly causing alarm along the Pacific Coast but sparing the quake-prone nation of any serious damage. The quake was centered about 137 km from Santiago, and some 35 km west of the coastal city of Valparaiso.